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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
With the progressive “accession” of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal German Republic after the reunification in 1990, Germany had to deal with a number of impediments emanating from the attempt to reconcile different political, social and legal models that developed during the forty years of separation between East and West Germany. Among these was the issue of how the property order in Germany would be influenced by seeking to integrate two such different socio-political and legal systems. As the discussion below indicates, the demands placed by this issue on the courts, legislature and administration of the newly reunified Federal German Republic still cause repercussions.
1 See inter alia: Depenheuer, O. Eigentum und Rechtsstaat Neue juristische Wochenschrift 53 (2000) 6, p. 385-390; Meixner, R. Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum Entschädigungs- und Ausgleichsleistungsgesetz Die öffentliche Verwaltung 55 (2002) 21, p. 900-908; K-A. Schwarz Wiedergutmachung und die “exceptio pecuniam non habendi” Die öffentliche Verwaltung 53 (2000) 17, p. 721-729; A. Jaekel Zur Rechtsprechung des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts zu den Überschuldungsfällen Zeitschrift für Vermögensund Investitionsrecht 6 (1996) 3, p. 113-117; T. Schweisfurth Von der Völkerrechtswidrigkeit der SBZ-Konfiskationen 1945-1949 zur Verfassungswidrigkeit des Restitutionsausschlusses 1990, Zeitschrift für Vermögens- und Investitionsrecht 10 (2000) 9, p. 505–521; and generally also Schweisfurth, T. SBZ-Konfiskationen privaten Eigentums 1945 bis 1949, Baden-Baden, Nomos (2000). P.E. Quint The Imperfect Union – Constitutional Structures of German Unification, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, (1997) deals with the intricacies of the Re-unification in particular.Google Scholar
2 Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 691.Google Scholar
3 Id.Google Scholar
4 Id.Google Scholar
5 The Wiedergutmachung initiative did not incorporated only a reparations program for dispossessed property. Instead, it constituted a full-blown attempt to induce social change in Germany, dealing with “denazification” and reform of the civil service over and above its attempts to restore property. It is outside the scope of this discussion to undertake an extensive discussion of this initiative, or even to list comprehensively the legislative and administrative measures applied to this initiative. For more detail, see esp. Goschler, C. Wiedergutmachung – Westdeutschland und die Verfolgten des Nationalsozialismus (1945-1954) Munich, Verlag, R. Oldenbourg (1992); and the case study of National-Socialist induced dispossession of Jewish property in the Rhineland-Palatinate between 1938 and 1953 as documented by Rummel, W. & Rath, J. “Dem Reich verfallen – den Berechtigten zurückzuerstatten“ Koblenz, Verlag der Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz (2001). A commentary on the most important laws behind the Wiedergutmachung initiative, e.g. the Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung (Federal Act for Compensation of Victims of National-Socialism); Gesetze zur Regelung der Wiedergutmachung nationalsozialistischen Unrechts für Angehörige des öffentlichen Dienstes im Inland und im Ausland (Acts for the Regulation of the Reparation of National-Socialist Injustice for Foreign and Inner Civil Servants), and Gesetze zur Wiedergutmachung nationalisozialistischen Unrechts in der Kriegsopferversorgung für Berechtigte im Inland und im Ausland (Acts for the Reparation of National-Socialist Injustice in the Care of Entitled Victims of War), see Ehrig, H-G. & Wilden, H. (eds) Bundesentschädigungsgesetze Kommentar, Munich, Beck, C.H. (1960) and the references provided there.Google Scholar
6 BGHZ 52, 371 at 381.Google Scholar
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8 Visser, D. & Roux, T. Giving back the Country: South Africa's Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 in Context in Rwelamira, R.W. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 99.Google Scholar
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10 Who were mostly Jews who survived the holocaust, or their descendants, but also included relatives of the conspirators of 20 July (the day on which a failed assassination attempt on Hitler took place).Google Scholar
11 Fieberg, G. Legislation and Judicial Practice in Germany: Landmarks and Central Issues in the Property Question in Rwelamira, M.R. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 82.Google Scholar
12 Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Regelung offener Vermögensfragen, 15 June 1990, BGBl. 1990 II at 1273.Google Scholar
13 Kommers, D.P. The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany 2nd ed., Durham, Duke University Press, (1997) at 256.Google Scholar
14 Incorporated into the Unification Treaty as Exhibit III, the agreement covered seized businesses and real estate-nearly all the industrial and landed property in the German Democratic Republic.Google Scholar
15 Art. 41(1) of Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands-Einigungsvertrag – 31 August 1990, BGBl. 1990 II at 889.Google Scholar
16 Fieberg, G. Legislation and Judicial Practice in Germany: Landmarks and Central Issues in the Property Question in Rwelamira, M.R. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 83.Google Scholar
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18 Gesetz zur Regelung von offener Vermögensfragen, BGBl. 1990 II at 1159.Google Scholar
19 The principle of natural restitution (Rückgabe vor Entschädigung) refers to the policy actually to return property to the original owners. Where restitution is not possible, compensation may be advanced in stead. The policy of natural restitution is laid down and simultaneously limited in articles 41(1) and (2) of the Unification Treaty. The chief mechanism for giving this principle practical implication, was the Property Act. Section 1 is the key provision. Subsections (1) to (7) enumerate the various categories of property which could be subject of restitution claims, while subsection (8) excludes restitution in a further number of categories. Restitution before compensation did not mean that rehabilitation in the economic sphere would necessarily be guided by present market values. It merely established the precedence of rehabilitation in kind over rehabilitation in money.Google Scholar
20 E.g. the Act on Special Investments in the German Democratic Republic (Gesetz über besondere Investitionen in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, BGBl. 1990 II at 1157) – the “Investment Act” and its successors, the “Investment Acceleration Act” (Gesetz zur Beseitigung von Hemnissen bei der Privatisierung von Unternehmen und zur Förderung von Investitionen, BGBl 1991 I at 766) and the “Investment Priority Act” (Gesetz Über den Vorrang für Investitionen bei Rückübertragungsansprüchen nach dem Bermögensgesetz-Investitionsvorranggesetz-BGBl 1992 I at 1268) provided additional conditions to regulate the principle of natural restitution.Google Scholar
21 Restitution claims had to be registered in the local Property Office of the district where the claimant (or the deceased in the case of a claim by the descendants) last lived, but could also be directed to the office in the district where the property in question was situated. The victims of persecution under nationalsocialism and foreign residents had to register their claims at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Bonn.Google Scholar
22 Scollo-Lavizzari, C.E. Restitution of Land Rights in an Administrative Law Environment – The German and South African Prodedures ComparedLL M Research Dissertation, University of Cape Town, (1996) at 45.Google Scholar
23 Sec. 3(3)1 and 15(2) of the Property Act.Google Scholar
24 E.g. where an investment priority decision or investment certificate had been granted. In such cases, the right to restitution was overridden. C.E. Scollo-Lavizzari Restitution of Land Rights in an Administrative Law Environment – The German and South African Prodedures Compared, LL M Research Dissertation, University of Cape Town, (1996) at 45-50; M. Southern Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 695.Google Scholar
25 § 30a of the Property Act.Google Scholar
26 Gesetz zur Änderung des Vermögensgesetzes und anderer Vorschriften (2. Vermögensrechtsänderungsgesetz) 14 July 1992; 1992 BGBl. at 1257Google Scholar
27 Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 696, citing the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 24 Jan 1992; Financial Times of 25/26 Jan 1992.Google Scholar
28 Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 696.Google Scholar
29 Scollo-Lavizzari, C.E. Restitution of Land Rights in an Administrative Law Environment – The German and South African Prodedures Compared, LL M Research Dissertation, University of Cape Town, (1996) at 50 ff.Google Scholar
30 Ibid. 46 ff.Google Scholar
31 Fieberg, G. Legislation and Judicial Practice in Germany: Landmarks and Central Issues in the Property Question in Rwelamira, M.R. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 85.Google Scholar
32 § 22-26 of the Property Act.Google Scholar
33 Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 695.Google Scholar
34 Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 696 provide interesting statistics as to the number of applications (said to have exceeded 1,1 million, of which 30 500 related to land and buildings, rather than businesses). In 1993, according to this source, only 8,5% of the land claims had been finalised, and it was speculated that the issue would take another 30 years to resolve.Google Scholar
35 Fieberg, G. Legislation and Judicial Practice in Germany: Landmarks and Central Issues in the Property Question in Rwelamira, M.R. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 88.Google Scholar
36 Decision of 23 October 2003, BverwG 7 C 62.02; VG 31 A 371.99.Google Scholar
37 A more detailed version of the background to the case is contained in par I of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
38 This included expropriation of land for the building of cities and development of belowstructure; for industrial settlements, energy management and for military purposes. Visser, D. & Roux, T. Giving back the Country: South Africa's Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 in Context in Rwelamira, R.W. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 100.Google Scholar
39 Quint, P.E. The Imperfect Union – Constitutional Structures of German Unification, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, (1997) at 124.Google Scholar
40 Id.Google Scholar
41 Das, S. Pries Neubauerneigentum in der ehemaligen DDR, Frankfurt am Main, Lang, (1993) at 120-121.Google Scholar
42 Fieberg, G. Legislation and Judicial Practice in Germany: Landmarks and Central Issues in the Property Question in Rwelamira, M.R. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 82.Google Scholar
43 Visser, D. & Roux, T. Giving back the Country: South Africa's Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 in Context in Rwelamira, R.W. & Werle, G. (eds) Confronting Past Injustices – Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, Durban, Butterworths, (1996) at 99.Google Scholar
44 See in general Southern, M. Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690 at 696 and the statistics provided by this source, mentioned in note 34 above.Google Scholar
45 For an overview of the situation, see M. Southern Restitution or Compensation: The Land Question in East Germany 1993 Int. & Comp. L.Q 690ff. and P.E. Quint The Imperfect Union – Constitutional Structures of German Unification, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, (1997) at 124ff.Google Scholar
46 § 2 (1) of the Property Act.Google Scholar
47 See the consideration of this aspect in par I of the Federal Administrative Court's decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
48 Id.Google Scholar
49 The details of the decision of the Berlin Administrative Court of 27 September 2002, in as far as they are relevant to the present case, are contained in par I of the Federal Administrative Court's decision.Google Scholar
50 Id.Google Scholar
51 See par II of the Federal Administrative Court's decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
52 Id.Google Scholar
53 See par II (1) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
54 These objectives are articulated by the Court in par II (1) (a) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
55 The court quotes the decisions of 24 June 1999 – BVerwG 7 C 20.98 and BVerwGE 109, 169 at 172 as authority.Google Scholar
56 See par II (1) (a) of the decision (note 36 above), and the authority quoted: Decision of 5 Oct. 2000 -BVerwG 7 C 8.00 – Buchholz 428 § 30 VermG No. 21.Google Scholar
57 In essence, a joint reading of these provisions of the Property Act indicates the prerequisites for restitution in terms of the Act, providing for the type of claims to be considered and the cut-off date for lodging of such claims.Google Scholar
58 See par II (1) (a) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
59 Id.Google Scholar
60 See par II (2) (c) of the decision.Google Scholar
61 See the court's reliance on BVerfGE 78, 20 at 24; BVerwG decision of 18 May 1995 – BVerwG 7 C 19.94 – Buchholz 428 § 1 VermG No. 44 p. 117.Google Scholar
62 See par II (2) (c) of the decision.Google Scholar
63 See par II (1) (a) of the decision.Google Scholar
64 § 2 (1) (3) of the Property Act.Google Scholar
65 Par II (1) (b) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
66 Id.Google Scholar
67 See the court's reliance on the decision of 28 March 1996 – BVerwG 7 C 28.95 – BVerwGE 101, 39 at 43.Google Scholar
68 Here the court relies on its previous decision of 24 June 1999 – BVerwG 7 C 20.98 – BVerwGE 109, 169 at 172.Google Scholar
69 The so-called “Anmeldung 3“. The Conference's claim was structured in three parts, the first two of which did not pass the scrutiny of the court, the first because of the very general nature in which it was phrased, and the second because of the element of chance in respect of its assumption of Jewish property which was built into the claim. See par I and II (2) (a) and (b) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
70 See par II (2) (c) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
71 Id.Google Scholar
72 Id.Google Scholar
73 Id.Google Scholar
74 Id.Google Scholar
75 Par II (3) of the decision (note 36 above).Google Scholar
76 Id.Google Scholar
77 Id.Google Scholar
78 Id.Google Scholar
79 Id.Google Scholar
80 Id.Google Scholar
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